Cuba's socialist go-it-alone medicine

WHEN a crippling US trade embargo blocked Cuba's access even to antibiotics, Fidel Castro fought back by fostering home-grown medical expertise. Today, Cuba's medical internationalism is legendary, with a network of volunteer doctors working round the globe. In the 1980s, Cuba also set out to build a socialist biotechnology industry, one that would put public health before profit, prevention before cure.

Did it succeed? Yes and no, argues S. M. Reid-Henry in this highly nuanced and scholarly account. An effective meningitis B vaccine and novel cancer drugs were landmark achievements, but Cuban attempts to win scientific recognition were repeatedly stymied. All the same, the Cubans did achieve fresh perspectives and approaches. "This, then, is the cure that Cuba might be said to offer," he concludes. "No magic bullet to be sure, but an attempt, at least, to produce a more social science."